Buckinghamshire approves £96M EfW plant

17 January 2007

Buckinghamshire County Council has announced this week plans to develop an energy-from-waste (EfW) solution to reuse residual waste as a fuel.
The council estimates building the centre will cost in the region of £96M, funded through prudential borrowing, with running costs amounting to £12.6M a year. However, the centre could be worth around £4.6M a year to the authority, through selling the electrical power.
The council’s cabinet gave its backing to the scheme this week.
Patricia Birchley, spokeswoman for waste, said: ‘I have visited many different waste facilities over the last year and I am confident that an EfW plant is the best answer. While we still must recycle and compost as much we can, there is always going to be some left over. If we can use this to produce energy and cut down on the amount which goes to landfill, then it really is the best way forward.’
The council aims for a recycling rate of more than 45% by 2010 and recycling remains a top priority for the council.
At present, residents across Buckinghamshire produce an estimated 270,000t of waste every year. And that works out at about 1.5t per household each year. About 40% is now recycled. However, the majority ends up in landfill sites. The option of continuing to dump waste in landfill makes neither environmental nor financial sense.
It currently costs an average of £40 a tonne to send waste to landfill, which includes £21 a tonne landfill tax.
Landfill tax continues to rise year on year and will be £35 a tonne by 2012. The Government is imposing fines on local authorities which fail to meet their landfill targets. The fine for not meeting landfill targets is £150 a tonne, which would make disposal costs of almost £200 a tonne at current prices.

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Buckinghamshire approves £96M EfW plant

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